+Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease

In 1993, Benin reported approximately 14,000 cases ofGuinea worm, and The Carter Center assisted the Ministry of Health in establishing a national program to eradicate the disease. By 2004, only three indigenous cases were reported.

Village volunteers, who were trained, supplied, and supervised by the program, carried out daily surveillance and interventions.

Benin greatly improved its Guinea worm surveillance by fully implementing strategies to contain cases within 24 hours of case detection. To help educate the public and raise awareness about Guinea worm, The Carter Center facilitated the recording of Guinea worm radio public service announcements in French, the official language of Benin.

In communities throughout the country, women were enlisted in the fight against Guinea worm disease. Directly responsible for obtaining water for household use, the women noticed if people with Guinea worm disease entered water sources to bathe or collect water and were able to spot and report outbreaks quickly.

The program recruited three university-trained women who were assigned to monitor outbreaks in one of three highly endemic regions: Mono, Zou, and Collines. These women, called social assistants, were the first of a future network of women in Benin's most endemic communities. Each social assistant began by training other women to search for cases of Guinea worm, log cases in the village register, and apply bandages to wounds caused by emerging worms.

The World Health Organization certified in 2009 that Guinea worm had been eliminated in Benin.

+Increasing Food Production

Working with the Benin Ministry of Agriculture, the Carter Center's Agriculture Program assisted farmers in Benin with agricultural production from 1989-1996. The program, in partnership with the Sasakawa Africa Association and led by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, was part of a larger joint initiative that helped more than 8 million small-scale, sub-Saharan farmers double or triple crop yields in countries where malnutrition was a constant threat.

The program in Benin assisted 100,000 families to adopt green manure crops, such as velvet bean, quality protein maize, and rice. Improved seeds, paired with the use of new farming technologies, helped farmers enhance soil fertility and control noxious weeds, thus increasing crop yield. The program then aided farmers in identifying local markets to sell their surplus harvests. Most farmers were able to save enough money from these earnings to diversify their holdings by purchasing livestock or different types of seeds.

Yet obstacles remained, including the physical distance to the nearest bank. Consequently, The Carter Center Agriculture Program, in conjunction with the Ministry of Rural Development, helped farmers develop village-based savings and loan banks, which brought together farmers, small traders, artisans, and cattle owners to contribute resources and create their own savings and loan association.
Benin's success with the savings and loan banks inspired other nations, including Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali, to adopt similar programs.

Achievements like these led The Carter Center and the Sasakawa Africa Association to end its in-country agricultural activities in Benin in 1999.